This is what happens when the women's group does sell all their merchantise at the annual Christmas bazaar.

This year, buy it all. Don't leave anything on the tables. Don't store any leftovers in the church basement. Offer to buy all the unsold items as a lot. Haul it to the thrift store. But do not, I repeat do not, let the sewing circle get ahold of it. Thank you for your cooperation!

S - The presence of the pipe organ does not necessarily mean this church has much money to spend on anything. Think of all the big mainline churches that are nearly empty most Sunday mornings. The flower arrangeents in the photo suggest neither wealth nor artistic taste.

This church must be surplus neckwear from a restaurant just outside Phoenix where neckties are illegal. The waitresses have a pair of scissors in one side of a double holster and a staple gun in the other side. If a man shows up in a tie, the waitress cuts it off and staples it to the wall or ceiling. Many a fine silk tie is waving in the breeze of those ceiling fans. Maybe once a year or so, they donate some of those ties to the church rummage sale where they have been recycled into this altar piece.

Agree with the mention above: this looks a lot like Photoshop. The white edging appears too uniform across the varying light of the altar. The *real* issue with this is that it's conceivable to a bunch of readers that this could have happened. Yikes.

GOOD GRIEF!! WHYYYY? I think this piece must be one of the most ridiculous you have posted so far. Thank you for it!! If you're ever in Oxford, go the to a pub called the Bear, I think they got the fabric from there...

I served this church for several years. Yes, it's a real necktie piece. The designer is a young woman who chaired the Altar Guild and then took her toys and went home very shortly after this. The organ is a lovely Steiner-Reck with a wonderful stoplist perfectly planned for Anglican worship. The worship space is light and airy and I was always inspired when I walked in from the back of the nave. There is a small but extremely vocal Cursillo group there that wants to renew their campfire high each week during Communion. The church had been charismatic for a while until a new rector came and threw out the guitars and tamourines, renovated the worship space, installed the organ, and then left.

WHY WE'RE HERE

This site is dedicated to subjecting particularly awful Christian liturgical vestments or church decorations to the ridicule they so richly deserve. Contributions are welcome and can be e-mailed to websterglobe at juno dot com.